Not Your Normal Death Wobble Post

About 4 months ago I lifted my Jeep with crap from the junkyard. I got about 3" in the rear with Dakota Leaves mixed in with my pack. In the front I used V8 ZJ coils and an extra coil isolator. The back was 20" from the center of the hub to the fender flare, and the front was a hair over 19". After I was done I had the dreaded Death Wobble. I didn't bother with an alignment, because I knew I wanted to even up the front. This weekend I added an extra coil isolator and now I'm at 20" from center of hub to the fender flare all the way around. Of course after I did this my DW went from bad to worse. There was no way I could drive this safely at highway speeds. I referenced Gojeeps page and tried to set the toe according to his site. Bottom line is it wasn't helping. So I tried a different approach. I put away the tape measure and adjusted the tie rod in small increments with a test drive in between each adjustment. After a couple of hours, I had it down from full-fledged sh1t your drawers death wobble to just a little wheel shimmy. Pulled out the tape measure and I'm actually at toe out slightly. One thing, when I adjusted the tie rod, the speed at which the DW occurred sometimes changed, so I guess it is possible I just moved the speed that it happens above 70 mph. Either way, as long as it doesn't come back, I'll be happy. Now has anyone else gotten rid of their DW by actually adjusting until they have toe OUT? Could I just be compensating for whatever is the true cause? Besides uneven tire wear, are there any problems with leaving it like this? I don't seem to have any steering, tracking, or drivability problems. Since I lifted I have noticed that the outside of my tires are wearing much faster than the insides. I rotated them to the rear and I'll see if that changes. The tires are 30x9.50 GoodYear GSA's that I picked up used for pretty cheap, so I'm not overly concerned with them wearing out faster than usual. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be too surprised if the tires weren't causing the DW in the first place. I bought them from a used car dealer who also sells used tires, so someone MAY have ditched them because they were out of round. Anybody have any thoughts, warnings, or explanations?

'92 / 4.0 / AW4 / Dakota leaves & ZJ V8 coils for about 3". Haven't upgraded shocks YET. Stock control arms and trackbar.


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Well brutha, you can answer your own questions by reading your own post..... wow. You're likely to get flamed pretty bad because you admit to using junkyard parts and expect a cobbled lift to perform appropriately. Funny stuff and I'm going to exercise my right to immortalize this thread in my sig.

But, I'll take a crack at helping your situation.

Toe out will help with the wobble because as the XJ drives forward, the friction between the road surface and tire are pushing the tire outward, thus creating tension on the steering and suspension components keeping them somewhat steady. Toe in makes the tires want to turn toward the other - right tire wants to go left, left wants to go right and those forces push against your steering components. Hitting a pothole or dip in the road makes things go helter-skelter.

Now, when you lift an XJ using factory parts that aren't engineered to compensate for the changed geometry created by moving the suspension down, you're basically driving the XJ with the suspension forced into a maxed droop - think of the XJ on a chassis lift at the tire shop, the suspension hangs down in a position way off from where it is designed to be. By adding lifting parts without lengthening the control arms or correcting the geometry, your driving with the suspension out of spec.

Lastly, check the ball joint on the chassis end of your track bar and see if there's any play in it - that is usually the #1 source of death wobble.

Good luck.

Wow what an honor to be immortalized from this day forward as a slacker who is too cheap to do it right the first time. I never expected the performance nor the quality of a real lift. However only lifting 2.5" in the front I was "hoping to get by" without Death Wobble. Thanks both for your input and the honor bestowed upon me.

If your getting DW like that, you probably have some pretty worn steering parts. Your best off to replace them before a tie rod end breaks and sends you flying off the side of the highway out of control than to try and mask the problem with misalignment.

Get a professional alignment first. You will probably need and adj trackbar. Have the shop check all your joints and such.

YELLAHEEP said:

You're likely to get flamed pretty bad because you admit to using junkyard parts and expect a cobbled lift to perform appropriately.

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I'm neither the first nor the last here to use Junkyard components for a small lift. Many here have gone higher than 2.5" with thier "cobbled lift" and experienced no DW.

YELLAHEEP said:

Lastly, check the ball joint on the chassis end of your track bar and see if there's any play in it - that is usually the #1 source of death wobble.
Good luck.

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I cranked down on the axle side and made sure that was good and tight. I'll check the chassis side for play. Thanks.

cal said:

Your best off to replace them before a tie rod end breaks and sends you flying off the side of the highway

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I've replaced three out of the four tie rod ends. Haven't replaced the draglink yet. The only one that was really worn was the one at the pitman arm. The two at either end of the tie rod looked pretty good. Although I'm happy that the DW is gone (or at least masked well enough for me to feel comfortable driving it, I haven't given up trying to find the offending worn component.

braeden said:

You will probably need and adj trackbar.

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Do you really think I need an adjustable trackbar at 2.5"?

And just to be fair YELLAHEEP, you did quote me slightly out of context in your sig. I had no expectations going into this. Nevertheless, it DOES make for a good quote in your sig. Feel free to have fun at my expense.

New tires and the death wobble is completely gone!!!!

I too have a cobbled lift and had DW after........I too found that qa new set of tires cured it for sometime. when it came back I found that lifting had threw off caster out of range, a good bit of shim and all well again, don't discount the alignment.

Good, now see if the wobble stays away with a fresh alignment. Don't want to fry the new rubber.

You can make cobbled parts work. Many other have also.

You do not need a adj trackbar with that small of a lift if you do not mind the front axle not being centered.

What I suspect your major issue is, is your castor if you have not adjusted it with the taller coils and isolators. Either go back to Gojeep's website and read all of the alignment pages including shiming and Castor adjustment or get a professional alignment and make sure they know and will ajust the Castor in the process.

It is not a good idea to drive with toe out any farther than you have to, Slight toe in would be slightly better than toe out.

Good Luck,
Michael